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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Supreme Court of the NWT heard testimony last week in an effort to determine whether a Fort Liard man should be jailed indefinitely until he can prove himself unlikely to re-offend.

The court heard evidence from Oct. 24 to 27 on whether 41-year-old Dennis Sassie poses a significant enough risk to the community to be classified as a dangerous offender under the Criminal Code of Canada.

Sassie has been in custody since Nov. 14, 2008 - two days after his last sexual offence, for which he was found guilty in 2009. The dangerous offender hearing is part of the sentencing process for the 2009 criminal trial.

In the early morning of Nov. 12, 2008, Sassie entered the home of a 65-year-old woman who had known him since he was a child and assaulted her. This was his third conviction for a sexual offence, having been convicted and sentenced for similar crimes in 1991 and 1998.

The Crown's case relied heavily on the testimony of two Toronto-based psychiatrists who conducted a 60-day evaluation of Sassie in 2010. The doctors both concluded that Sassie was in the highest risk category to re-offend.

The court heard that Sassie had shown a lack of empathy, lack of remorse and a failure to accept responsibility for his behaviour when it came to his previous offences throughout his evaluation. This attitude, coupled with the impulsive nature of his sexual assault and assault crimes - his victims range in age from six to 65 - made him a high risk to re-offend.

The doctors diagnosed Sassie with antisocial personality disorder, dependence on alcohol and drugs, and paraphilic disorder - where the individual has a lifelong inappropriate sexual preference.

Both psychiatric doctors told the court that Sassie was non-compliant throughout much of the evaluation process.

"Generally, Mr. Sassie was not a very co-operative interviewee," said Dr. Steven Cohen, a forensic psychiatrist specializing in risk assessment and psychiatric disorders. Cohen went on to say that Sassie had been reluctant to talk about his previous offences, either claiming to not remember, or getting upset to a point where he could not be calmed down and the interview had to be suspended.

"He felt his anger wasn't under his control. That it was something that he was afflicted with," said Cohen.

When Sassie took the stand in his own defence later in the week, he said he had tried to co-operate with the psychiatric evaluation, and denied being purposefully misleading about his prior offences.

"He said he was trying to co-operate, that he couldn't remember things," Shannon Smallwood, senior prosecutor told News/North. "He initially denied that he was unco-operative, but later admitted that he did get angry with them and upset and he might have sworn at them."

On the stand, Sassie did agree to the recommended treatment of sex drive reduction medication and Antabuse, which makes the patient physically ill if they consume alcohol.

"He says he does need to take treatment for some of his problems," said Smallwood. "He was willing to take it but he doesn't really understand some of the side effects."

Final submissions are scheduled for Nov. 23.

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